Among the comedians in the book: Lewis Black, Jon Stewart, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, and George Carlin.

One of my favorite passages from the book is Provenza’s interview with John Lee and Vernon Chatman, the creators of the short-lived MTV2 sketch comedy series Wonder Showzen. In the excerpt below (reprinted with permission courtesy of It Books), they discuss the censors at MTV:

John Lee: They were always sensitive about religious stuff, too. That was kind of the biggest thing. We had a little puppet on the cross, and they said, “You can do God, you just can’t do Jesus. God is just an abstract idea, but Jesus? People will get offended.”

Vernon Chatman: MTV actually told us, “You can make fun of God because he doesn’t exist—

John Lee: —But you can’t make fun of Jesus, because he’s God’s son.”

Vernon Chatman: Someone actually said this to us. Please print that; I want it on the record. I’ll say it again so you get it right, and you promise you’ll print it. Someone at the network said: “You can make fun of God because he doesn’t exist, but you can’t make fun of Jesus, because he’s God’s son.”

Paul Provenza: I will print that you told me both times that the network said, “You can make fun of God because he doesn’t exist, but you can’t make fun of Jesus, because he’s God’s son.”

Keep that in mind when the Powers That Be give you your own show 🙂

The folks at It Books have offered to give away a copy of the book to a reader here. Woo!

So let’s have some fun with it. All you have to do is provide an answer to the following:

We used to play this game at the hotel I worked in. We had walkie talkies and occasionally had to take boats empty of tourists around an inside tour track (an artificial river) to make sure rotation made sense. Whoever was on the empty boat would go back and forth with whoever was on dock just saying movie titles. The goal wasn’t to bleep, though–it was to replace the last word in the title with a certain part of the male anatomy. Every single Star Wars (as noted by Evan) and Pirates of the Carribean movie works wonderfully. Curse of the Black [bleep] was a recurring favourite.

“I was seeing that there are some reruns of [Bleep]Rider on my local cable channel 14. Turns out it’s about a car that justs talks to people … and that all.”

Really? The [Beep] Rider I saw was about bikers.

Reginald Selkirk

The Unbearable Lightness of [Bleep]ing

Snuggly Buffalo

The Lord of the [bleeps] by J.R.R. Tolkien.

This of course is actually a trilogy of books, The Fellowship of the [bleep], The [bleep] Towers, and The [bleep] of the King.

Ninja

Jim H

My own entry reminds me of a joke about dirty limericks.

A husband and wife (call them Joe and Meg) collect dirty limericks as a shared hobby. One day Joe comes home an tells Meg, “I heard one, but it’s too dirty. I’m embarrassed to repeat it.”. Meg says, “Well then, just tell it with a nonsense sound replacing each dirty word.” Joe agrees:

“What the Bleep Do We Know?!” I guess that one that one takes care of itself.

Pirate! again…

Citizen Z

How to [Bleep] Your Dragon
Hot Tub [Bleep] Machine

Ninja

ff42

The Passion of the [bleep]

Lethal [bleep]

Ninja

Revyloution

To Kill a [bleep]

with Calpurnia on the cover.

Becca

The Big [Bleep] Theory because nerds are awesome. Ninja!

Ollie

Penn & [bleep]er; Bullshit!
The [bleep] of Brian
[bleep]less: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading [bleep]s
The Portable [bleep]: Essential [bleep]ings For The Nonbeliever
His Dark [bleep]s:
The Golden [bleep],
The Subtle [bleep],
and The Amber [bleep]
Ninja!

{BLEEP} in a Junkyard: The Relentless {BLEEP} of Darwinism
-by James Perloff

/ninjaaa

Justin

Ya bleep 2 vampires in 7 seasons and that’s the reputation you get?

I didn’t say “as many as.” I said “as often as.” If I hammer 5000 nails and turn 2 screws 2500 times, then I turn screws as often as I hammer nails. However, neither turning screws nor hammering nails makes me a necrophiliac.

The LORD [bleep] my shepherd; I shall not [bleep]. He [bleep] me to lie down in green pastures, he [bleep] me beside the still waters. He [bleep] my soul he [bleep] me in the paths of righteousness for his [bleep]’s sake. [bleep], though I walk through the valley of the [bleep] of death, I will [bleep] no evil, for thou [bleep] with me; thy rod and thy staff they [bleep] me. Thou preparest a [bleep] before me in the presence of mine enemies thou [bleep] my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall [bleep] me all the days of my life; and I will [bleep] in the house of the LORD for ever.